The girlfriend of a man charged with stabbing to death Twanny Borg, known as Il-Bona, said in court yesterday the victim called her boyfriend three times on the day of the incident.

Amanda Grech said she had answered three calls from the victim and after the first call she had handed the phone to her boyfriend who left the house, slamming the door behind him and leaving the phone at home.

Ms Grech was testifying in the case against Allan Galea who is accused of murdering Mr Borg on February 21.

She said she had spent all day with Mr Galea as they had a market stall in their hometown Marsaxlokk. At about midday, the victim greeted her boyfriend but he did not reciprocate because they had customers. They packed up at about 4. 30 p.m. and Mr Galea headed for the football club to attend a meeting about a match the following day. She went home together with their daughter.

A few minutes later, Mr Galea went back home when the first call came in. Ms Grech answered it and then gave the phone to Mr Galea and she then made her way upstairs.

She heard her boyfriend speaking to the victim in an aggressive way but did not hear the exact words being exchanged because she was giving a bath to their daughter upstairs. Shortly afterwards, she heard the main door being slammed and Mr Galea left the house.

The phone rang again and Mr Borg told her in an aggressive manner to tell her boyfriend to go to the club. A few minutes later, the phone rang a third time and Mr Borg repeated his previous message and said he was going to cut Mr Galea up.

At this point, she panicked and frantically called the emergency services - the recording had been played in a previous sitting - where Ms Grech could be heard crying and telling the police that "they were going to fight with knives at the Nationalist club" in Marsaxlokk.

She was so scared she left the house in her pyjamas, something she had never done before, which was a sign of her panicked state, she said.

She walked to the village square and a saw a group of people standing around discussing something when somebody told her they shot at "him" but not saying at whom.

Her heart skipped a beat and only found out what happened on the evening news, she added.

The victim's girlfriend, Claire Magri, opted not to testify on grounds that she might incriminate herself given pending court proceedings against her.

A request for bail was made and the matter will be formally dealt with once the last witness, Prancienne Borg, testifies next Thursday.